China jails more Falun Gong

BEIJING, China -- A court in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin has jailed 13 members of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement for protesting and distributing sect pamphlets, a local newspaper said.

The sentences of up to six years reported in Tianjin's Jinwan Bao newspaper bring the number of Falun Gong members jailed this month to 50 in Beijing and Tianjin alone.

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The Tianjin verdicts included a six-year sentence on Cao Chengming, 53, for unfolding a Falun Gong banner at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in a protest with others on China's National Day last year, the newspaper said.

Cao, whose banner read, "Falun Gong is not an evil cult," was convicted of "using a cult to obstruct the law," said the newspaper. Fellow protester Hao Nianxiang was jailed for four years.

In a separate Tianjin case, Yang Cuilan, 42, was jailed for six years on the same charges for reproducing and disseminating Falun Gong fliers, audiotapes and video cassettes last October, the newspaper said.

On March 1, courts in Beijing jailed 37 Falun Gong followers for up to 10 years for disseminating statements downloaded from the spiritual group's Websites and distributing fliers opposing China's ban on the group.

Despite a tough 19-month campaign to snuff out the Falun Gong and several Communist Party declarations of victory, the group has continued its protests.

Since Falun Gong was banned, tens of thousands of followers have been detained for protesting.

Last week, exiled Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi issued a statement on the group's website saying China's crackdown was futile and that adherents who had recanted their beliefs under duress would resume their practices.

China, which considers Falun Gong a brainwashing "evil cult" that endangers followers' health, says it has arrested more than 150 protest organizers. But authorities deny allegations of abuse, saying they treat ordinary followers with lenience.

Beijing has branded the homegrown spiritual group a weapon of Western countries hostile to China's Communist government.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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